Go Back

Beef & Turkey Meatballs

Meatball Quinoa Soup, Meatballs in your favourite sauce on pasta and Meatball Subs in a marinara sauce are 3 meal ideas. If kids are doing this recipe I would suggest only 1 recipe split between 2 or 3 families so the kids don't get overwhelmed by the rolling involved.
This is a great recipe to do with friends because you can chat while you roll the meatballs. Feel free to adjust the mixture of ground meats - all beef, all turkey or a mixture of beef and pork are also delicous.

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 1 lb lean ground turkey (breast meat is great if you can find it)
  • 3/4 cup bread crumbs
  • 1/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

  • In a 10 inch frying pan heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and saute until soft approximately 10 minutes.
  • Stir in minced garlic and cook for another minute then set pan aside to cool.
  • In a large bowl grate the carrot.  
  • To the bowl add ground beef, ground turkey, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese, egg, salt, pepper and reserved onion mixture.
  • With your hands mix all ingredients together until it is consistent - you might need to help kids with this step.
  • Rolling between your 2 palms form meat mixture into small meatballs approximately 2 cm in size. Use approximately 1/3 of the mixture for these meatballs to be added to your soup.
  • At this point you should begin your soup preparation. Once the soup is simmering you can make additional meatballs of a larger size to be used in meatball subs or pasta.  
  • To cook meatballs you can bake them on a large baking sheet at 400 degrees for approximately 20 minutes stirring after 10 minutes.
  • To cook meatballs in a marinara sauce, first bring the sauce to a boil, add meatballs and cover. Simmer this sauce for 45 minutes to one hour. Meatballs can be tested and should register 165 degrees in the centre.